Tag Archives: Part 3

This is part of a series publishing portions of a research paper on How a Leader Maintains High Productivity Without Team Burnout.

Appendix B: The seven aspects of burnout

Since the 1980s there has been a massive explosion in social scientific research on the subject [of burnout]. Schaufeli and Enzman estimated that over 50 research dissertations had appeared each year since the mid-80s and over 300 studies per year with the word ‘burnout’ in the title since the end of that decade. This enormous amount of research has resulted in some common ground about the conceptualization of burnout. The following generally agreed:

Burnout is a negative ‘psychological condition’ that develops over a long period of time among individuals who do not manifest behaviors indicative of mental illness.

It is often ‘unnoticed for a long time by the individual involved.’

It is primarily a work-related phenomenon. This is a very important distinction without which it would be impossible to differentiate burnout from other psychological constructs such as stress, chronic fatigue syndrome and depression… Hence burnout is often referred to as job burnout or employee burnout.

Burnout occurs more often among younger employees during the earlier states of their careers than older employees…Schaufeli and Enzman write that, ‘Among younger employees, burnout is observed more often than among those aged over 30 or 40 years…

Burnout occurs among those that have a very high level of motivation to succeed in their careers and high expectations and goals about their own accomplishments…Freudenberger described burnout as an ‘over-achiever syndrome’… ‘A paradox exists: the most valuable and successful professionals are those who, for that very reason, run the largest risk of burning out.’

Burnout is a ‘multi-dimensional syndrome’. It is manifested by symptoms of severe exhaustion and distress at being overwhelmed and over-extended, feelings of ineffectiveness and inadequacy, reduced motivation and commitment, and ‘dysfunctional attitudes and behaviors at work’.

Burnout appears to be a universal and pervasive phenomenon which is not strongly culturally dependent and whose form is similar across national, cultural, and occupational boundaries. (Casserley & Megginson, 2009, pp. 14-5)